Cuff button



July 26, 1955 R. w. L IBBY 2,713,707

CUFF BUTTON Filed Aug. 2l, 1955 lll/ llllllll/Illllllllll/1111111 INVENTOR zuz W. BY ad ATTORNEY United States Patent O CUFF BUTTON Reuel W. Libby, Cranston, R. I., assignor to King Cul Pin, Inc., a corporation of Rhode Island Application August 21, 1953, Serial No. 375,647

2 Claims. (Cl. 24-110) A further object of the invention is to provide a separable cuff button with releasable friction grip parts.

An additional object is to provide a separable cui button having two ornamental members, one member having a projecting pin and the other member having a releasable lock socket for frictionally gripping the pin shank.

Another object of the invention is to make a separable cuff button of a small number of parts, which are readily manufactured and assembled, and which have an exceptionally long life.

With the above and other objects and advantageous features in view, the invention consists of a novel arrangement of parts, more fully disclosed in the detailed description following, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and more specically defined in the claims appended thereto.

In the drawings,

Fig. l is a perspective view of a sleeve portion, showing the appearance of the novel cuff link when mounted;

Fig. 2 is a transverse section through the cuif link parts, the parts being in attached relation with the lock disk of the locket socket member gripping the projecting pin of the pin member;

Fig. 3 is a transverse section similar to Fig. 2, the parts being in separated relation and partly b roken away;

Fig. 4 is a sectional detail on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5 is a sectional detail on the line 5-5 of Fig. 3.

It has been found advisable to provide a separable cu link having an ornamental head with a projecting post element, and a second ornamental head with a socket which has friction grip elements for detachably gripping the shank of the post element, whereby the post element is inserted into the socket to be gripped therein, and the socket parts may be manually shifted to release the post element and thus permit separation of the two heads. I prefer to make the post element of pin form, whereby the pin may be passed through the cui button holes or through the cuff material and a sewed button, if desired, thus permitting use of the novel cuff link with both French or barrel cuffs. I further provide a socket of extended length for the pin, in order to permit an adjustment in the spacing between the ornamental heads, to accommodate different culf thicknesses.

Referring to the drawings, which disclose a preferred embodiment of the invention, the cuff link includes an ornamental head 11 having a projecting post element 12,

ICC

devi-ce 14 into which the post element 12 is seated to be releasably gripped therein.

The ornamental head 11 may be of any desired type, and as illustrated includes a cup shaped base 15 having an anuular flange or rim 16 in which an ornamental stone 17 is locked, as by swaging the vrim 16 around the Y l. base 22 is readily mounted and locked in the recess 18 to project outwardly as shown.

' The ornamental head 13 may also be of any desired type, and as illustrated includes a cup shaped base 23 having an annular ange or rim 24 in which an ornamental stone 25 is locked by swaging the rim 24 therearound. A cylindrical hub 26 depends from the base 23, and may be soldered thereto or formed integral therewith; an annular cup element 27 which has a base 28, an annular rim 29, and a central annular flange 30 is secured on the hub 26, preferably by soldering.

A second cup element 31 is provided, having a base 32 with a central opening 33 and an outer annular ange 34, and is locked into the cup element 27 in reverse relation, by force fit if desired, to provide a circular recess 35 in which a disk 36 having a central opening 37 and a steel ball 38 is seated as shown, the two cup elements providing an annular housing in axial alignment with the hub. An outer cap 39 having a base 40, an annular rim flange 41 slidably mounted over the cup element rim 29, and a central bearing 42 slidably received in the opening 33 of the cup element 31, may be manually moved towards the head 13, the bearing 42 having a central bore 43 and the end of the bearing 42 being ared out as indicated at 44 to hold the cap in position. A thimble 45 having a central bore 46 and a reduced lower end 47 is movably seated in the hub 26 and is spring pressed downwardly by a compression coil spring 48, see Fig. 2.

The bearing bore 43 and the thimble bore 46 are slightly larger than the diameter of the pin shank 21, to permit free sliding insertion therethfough; the disk opening 37 and a second ornamental head 13 having a lock socket is somewhat larger than the pin shank diameter, whereby the disk may tilt with respect to the pin shank by the downward pressure of the spring 48 on the thimble. The outer cap 39 has its bearing bore enlarged in conical form as indicated at 49, to facilitate insertion of the pin point thereinto. The assembled socket parts thus described constitute the lock socket device 14.

In use, the ornamental head 13 is placed in the one button hole of a French cuff, or in the button hole of a barrel cuff, with the button hole edges between the ornamental head and the cup element 27. The pin element 12 is passed through the other button hole, or, in the case of a barrel cui, is passed through the cui material and through one of the openings of a sewed button, and is readily inserted into the conical entrance 49 of the lock socket device, to extend through the cap bearing bore, the disk opening, and the thimble opening; thereupon the thimble is resiliently urged down to tilt the disk. The edges of the disk opening to thereupon rmly grip the pin shank, thus keeping the cuff button parts together until manual pressure on the cap drawing it towards the head 13 moves the disk upwardly as shown in Fig. 3 to permit withdrawal of the pin and separation of the culf button heads.

Although I have disclosed a specific constructional feature of my invention, it is obvious that changes in the size, shape and arrangement of the parts may be made to meet certain other requirements, without departing from the spirit or the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

l. A separable cuff link, comprising an ornamental head with a projecting pin, and a second ornamental head having a socket device mounted thereon for releasably gripping the pin, said socket device including a cylindrical hub, an annular housing depending from and in axial alignment with the hub, a disk freely movable in said housing, a thimble in the hub spring pressed to press er1-- gage the disk, a tilting element in said housing adapted to tilt the disk when it is pressed down by the thimble, and a cap having a central bearing slidably extending into a central opening in the housing and contacting the disk in opposed relation to the thimble, said cap bearing disk and thimble having aligned pin receiving openings, whereby insertion of the pin through the aligned openings and tilting of the disk by the spring pressed thimble locks the pin shank against the edges of the disk opening until movement of the cap towards the housing turns the disk to release the pin shank.

2. In the combination of claim l, said disk tilting element being a ball within the housing.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,002,632 Bodor Sept. 5, 1911 1,019,697 Pelchat et al. Mar. 5, 1912 1,190,362 Aanerud July 11, 1916 1,462,332 Fried July 17, 1923 FOREIGN PATENTS 18,718 Great Britain of 1911 57,358 Switzerland of 1911 

